Bald Knobbers: Vigilantes on the Ozark Frontier

By Mary Hartman and Elmo Ingenthron

Book Overview

During the 1880s, the Ozark hills echoed with the sound of Winchester rifles. Ropes were hastily flung over tree limbs, and men were lynched without the benefit of a jury trial. Bundles of switches thrown on the porches of loose men and women by masked night riders served as a warning to mend your ways.

In this action-filled saga of the notorious eight-year rampage, journalist Mary Hartman and historian Elmo Ingenthron (a direct descendant of a Bald Knobber) have produced the most comprehensive account ever written on the Bald Knobber era. They trace the vigilantism, dating from the border wars of the Civil War and the internal strife that plagued the southern Missouri-northern Arkansas area for 20 years afterward. Although the Bald Knobbers were active for only a short period, their reign of terror spawned a legacy of fear and hatred that only in recent years has begun to subside.
In this book, you will come face-to-face with the legendary leaders of this group. Mat Kinney, a giant of a man, helped found the Bald Knobbers and led them in building a grim reputation that spread like an Ozark brush fire. Seventeen-year-old Billy Walker, a hot-tempered youth, murdered two members of an innocent family. In a grisly scene, Walker, his father, and a third Bald Knobber swung from the gallows in the region's only triple hanging.

A scandalous tale indeed, Bald Knobbers is a must for history buffs, action-seekers, and enthusiasts of the American frontier era.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0882896830
• ISBN13: 9780882896830
• Release Date: April 1988
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

found family

it was a great book. it helped me know a bit more about my fathers family.bald knobbers were a bad bunch but it let me know that my ancestors were not all boring. thanks

Revealing History

"Bald Knobbers" is one of the best of the genre of popular history. It is real, documented history, but the authors do not let scholarship get in the way of telling an amazing story. "Bald knobbers" were left-overs from one of the most terrifying times and places in American history,the Arkansas and Missouri Ozark mountains during and after the Civil War. This part of the country was about evenly mixed between the Union and the Confederacy. This in itself would have caused tension and bloodshed, but to add to the problem the Ozarks in the 19th century were both remote and hilly -- the ideal place for deserters and outlaws to gather, form gangs, pillage, and kill with abandon. This book is about what took place during the few decades after the War's conclusion in Taney County, Missouri (home today of Branson), where "the law" didn't exist.

Great research, easy read

Rumors abound that Bald Knobbers were Ku Klux Klansman. Not true! They weren't racists. They were, however, shameless thugs. Cap'n Kinney started the Bald Knobbers to fight the extremely corrupted local government. Unfortunately, it was far too easy for Kinney and his Knobbers to become just like the thing they wanted to fix! In the beginning they doled out 'justice' to the deserving, but they eventually began handing out whippings, and sometimes even bullets, to anyone brave enough to speak out against them. The authors also give a rather heart-wrenching account of a massacre that resulted in the first and only state executions carried out at the Christian County Jail. The Bald Knobbers had killed two men while the men's wives and children had watched in horror. The men had spoken out against the Bald Knobbers. Several Bald Knobbers were arrested for the crime, and a 16 year old boy and his father were among the four to be hanged. When the Knobbers were hung, the ropes were too long and the Sheriff had to hang the boy twice, much to the horror of the onlooking crowd (not to mention the boy). There are other shocking events that occurred around the execution, but I won't spoil the surprise! This is a very well written book, easy to read, wonderfully researched, and even indexed! A must read for anyone living in or curious about Southwest Missouri.

interesting unknown history

This book ofers you a look of a little know part of american history . It show what happen in the Ozarks when a few men took law into thier own hands and tried to make the town right by , by-passing the courts and prision system . This book was very violent but also well researched . It also shows a very unbiased account of the players and events that took place. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a new part of history to look into . This will show you alot of what people in the Ozarks went through in that time period and it may shock you.